Write gooder: Practice proper English

People may believe that I’m on my proverbial high horse when I talk about grammar because I am an English major, have (as some would say) an “abnormal” love for the oxford comma, and wholeheartedly believe that Shakespeare is perhaps the coolest person of all time. However, this is a subject that needs special attention, especially since we are college students preparing to make the real world our oyster. It breaks my heart every time I see something written by my peers with basic grammatical errors; it literally hurts my heart.

Jeff Roberts, the Career Services Coordinator at Loras, could probably go on for hours about the importance of how bad grammar could cost you a job. I can speak from experience. It’s awkward. I am an English and Public Relations major, but I accidentally wrote on my resume that I was a Public Speaking Major—a major which does not exist at Loras. Every job in America today needs its employees to communicate, and how are they supposed to believe that you can do that if the resume is not spelled correctly?

Communication is the most basic thing that a person can do. We have been communicating since the moment we were born. We cry for our moms, we start to babble and then learn basic words, we write, and it only gets more advanced as we grow up. Public speaking taught us that if communication gets disrupted, the message loses meaning and could disappear entirely. If we are not able follow the basic rules, then how are we supposed to effectively share the message?

Loras College is a very paper-happy school. It’s been three weeks, and I have written three papers (all due last week, thank you). Grammar is always on the rubric, and I’m surprised more people have not learned from their mistakes. Grades, jobs, and basic communication are on the line.

I hope everyone had as much of a laugh as I did about the headline, but this is serious business. If we do not follow the basic rules of grammar, the sentence goes from, “We invited the strippers, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington out to eat” to “We invited the strippers, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington out to eat.” Our Founding Fathers were not strippers, so be sure to use proper grammar.

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MyDuhawk.com is a student run, converged media publication of Loras College Television and The Lorian newspaper. Our focus is to bring you news and sports from Loras College, as well as the Dubuque and surrounding communities.